Football prowess, hard work and dedication were all celebrated at the ECS Elecs football awards banquet held Monday evening.

Plenty of hardware was handed out to individuals, though to a man, each player attributed the whole team as equally deserving of the recognition. Some awards had two or more recipients, due to the effort shown by the group.

Hunter Eagles was both the Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year.

Such was the case with the Rookie of the Year. Both James Knibbs and Nigel Mack were given the nod for it, while the Lineman of the Year went to two hard hitting players, namely Jarod Buick and Erik Swirski.

Buick, a graduating member of the Elecs was on the stage a couple more times, taking home a share in the Ironman award as well.

"It's nice, but it's not about the individual success. It's all about the team's success. I would rather have a great season and win no awards, too," he said, noting that the year was good, despite not having the greatest record.

"We saw a lot of promise with our younger players, and I think they are going to have a really strong team coming up in the next couple years."

Carter Davenport, also graduating, was also among those whose name was called several times through the PA system in the ECS cafeteria, as Player's Choice and Who Are We?/Bryan Illerbrun Awards were handed to him.

"It's more about the team than me, because the team comes first and I come second. There's no 'I' in 'team'," he expressed.

"It was a rebuilding season, and the players got to know each other really well. I'd like to see more confidence in them and get themselves to grow more, and get more wins than we did this year. They have lots of potential and they can definitely do it."

Davenport added that his brother, Cole, was also an inspiring influence in his playing.

Other award winners included...

  • Special Teams Player of the Year---Colten Kolakowski
  • Defensive Player of the Year---Triston Sorenson, with a league leading 5 interceptions.
  • Offensive Player of the Year---Hunter Eagles
  • Most Valuable Player---Hunter Eagles
  • Who Are We?/Bryan Illerbrun---Carsen Ford, Dylan Mann, Carter Davenport, Erik Guisikowski

For Head Coach Mark Schott, the evening was a chance to reflect back on the season and relive some of the experiences.

Triston Sorenson, with a league leading 5 interceptions, was the Defensive Player of the Year.

 "It's also our last chance to get together as a team before everybody moves on to something else."

 "We had a very young team at the start of this year, so we didn't really know what to expect. Over the course of the year, we had some great   players step up for us. Carter Davenport made a big impact on our team and getting us ready to play. He was someone who was with us for   four years, then there was someone new like Hunter Eagles, who came in and played exceptionally well."

 "Across the board, grade 9 through 12, we had key players and we hope that that young core gives us something to build with moving   forward," he concluded.